Saudi Arabia, South Korea ink nuclear energy deal

Saudi Arabia and North Korea have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to cooperate on the development of nuclear energy programs, the kingdom’s state news agency SPA said. 

South Korean President Park Geun-hye met with Saudi Arabia's King Salman on Tuesday in Riyadh during an official visit, SPA reported.

The MOU calls for South Korean companies to build at least two medium-sized nuclear reactors in the kingdom at a value of $2 billion, the South Korean presidential office was quoted as saying in Yonhap News Agency.

Saudi has said it is planning to build 16 nuclear reactors by 2030 at an estimated cost of over $100 billion. The world's biggest oil exporter currently has no nuclear power.

The MoU was ratified Hisham bin Abdullah Yamani, president of King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy and Choi Yang-hee, South Korea's minister of science. 

Al-Hassan G.I. Shaker Co. (Shaker Group) also signed on Tuesday a non-binding  MoU with LG Electronics South Korea to start talks on the latter supplying power reactor components for Saudi Arabia’s nuclear power plants.